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--EMBEDDED PDF HERE-- In an opinion issued today in the Illinois case of Moore v. Madigan, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Second Amendment “right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense … implies a right to carry a loaded gun outside the home.” --IMAGE HERE-- The opinion is a joy to read as Judge Posner proceeds to shred the historical and public policy arguments against carry put forward by Illinois. Here are some examples to warm your heart on this cold December afternoon: Both Heller and McDonald do say that “the need for...

USA --(Ammoland.com)- Otis McDonald, born and raised amidst the hardships of sharecropping in the cotton fields of Fort Necessity, Louisiana, overcame poverty and social prejudice to become the first in his family to earn a college degree and rise to the relative comfort of America’s middle class. With drug and gang activity on the rise in Chicago, McDonald’s home has become increasingly threatened by violent crime. With no other intent but to defend his family against life-threatening intrusion, McDonald encounters the dichotomy of gun-wielding criminals and a Chicago statute limiting the purchase of handguns. As lead petitioner in a Supreme...

ALBANY, NY — Sen. Roy McDonald will announce Thursday that he will not push forward with a third-party campaign, two people familiar with this campaign said. One source said McDonald, a two-term Republican incumbent who lost a GOP primary to Saratoga County Clerk Kathy Marchione, made his decision "for the good of the party." He has been largely silent since the Sept. 13 primary, as he weighed whether to push toward the November general election on the Independence Party line, which he secured over the summer. While she always maintained her platform was broader, Marchione's challenge to McDonald was shaped...

Hudson, NY - Kathy Marchione, who has been Saratoga County Clerk since 1997, decided to challenge state Sen. Roy McDonald in the Republican primary for the 43rd District seat in part due to his 2011 vote in favor of same sex marriage in the state. “I would not have voted for gay marriage,” Marchione said in a phone interview last week. “He actually told people he was voting no and then he voted yes. I won’t tell people something and do something else.” Marchione calls herself a “true conservative” and said her belief is that the definition of marriage is...

'TROY, N.Y. — Before State Senator Roy J. McDonald, a Republican, voted last year to legalize same-sex marriage, he told reporters that anyone unhappy with his position could “take the job and shove it.” Now comes the test.' 'Mr. McDonald’s challenger, Kathleen A. Marchione, the Saratoga County clerk, is running an insurgent campaign, dialing voters from a windowless office next to a Subway sandwich shop. She accuses Mr. McDonald of having deceived the voters who elected him by changing his position on same-sex marriage, which he voted to oppose in the past. “People feel betrayed,” Ms. Marchione said. “I’ve heard...

Republicans and Conservatives looking for a truly pro-family candidate on Primary Day, Thursday, Sept. 13, will vote for Roy McDonald. Sen. McDonald is not only the proven friend of families in our community, he is the No. 1 leader whose dedication and vision have helped our families to a better life. snip As senator, Roy has continued his dedication to the well-being of families, especially by sponsoring and seeing approved major legislation to assist individuals with disabilities. Sen. Roy McDonald has been doing right by our community, our families, for a long time. Let’s keep him on the job.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: By the way, did you hear what Michelle did? Gabby Douglas was on the Leno show, The Tonight Show. You gotta hear this. Gold medal gymnast, Gabby Douglas. She's on The Tonight Show with Michelle (My Belle) Obama. Leno says, "Gabby after you won your gold medal, how did you celebrate? What did you do?" DOUGLAS: After the competition, I splurged on a Egg McMuffin... LENO: Egg McMuffin! DOUGLAS: ...at McDonald's. (laughter) Michelle Obama Scolds Olympics Hero Gabby Douglas for Eating an Egg McMuffinOBAMA: Gabby, we don't... LENO: Egg McMuffin! OBAMA: ... don’t encourage him! I'm sure...

U.S. District Court Holds that NRA is Entitled to Attorneys' Fees for Lawsuits Against Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois Fairfax, Va. –  The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division has conclusively held that the National Rifle Association has the right to recover attorneys' fees in the case of National Rifle Association v. City of Chicago and National Rifle Association v. Village of Oak Park, in which the NRA was a prevailing party. This District Court's decision, which held that the NRA is entitled to over $1.3 million in fees, follows a similar ruling by...

On May 17, Otis McDonald spoke at an Illinois NAACP office about the issues of gun rights. The chapter president invited Otis to speak because he felt it was important to let his fellow members hear both sides of the argument, especially considering that African Americans traditionally support guns less than whites do. A lot of you probably won't recognize Otis' name, but he was the lead plaintiff in the McDonald vs Chicago US Supreme Court case. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment also applied to the states, because as Justice Samuel A. Alito put it, rights that are...

DID YOU KNOW SOUTH AFRICA HAS A CONSTITUTION THAT'S FAR SUPERIOR TO OUR OWN? THAT'S WHAT ONE U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, AS WELL AS SHADOWY ACTIVITIST GROUPS WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES TO EFFECT CHANGE, BELIEVE. “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the Constitution of South Africa … a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights …” -Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jan. 30, 2012. That stunning disavowal—by an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court—of the Constitution she has sworn...

Senators James Alesi, Mark Grisanti, Roy McDonald and Stephen Saland Benefiting from Bloomberg-Hosted Fundraiser This Evening New York, NY---- The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today announced it is running an online advertisement throughout New York state in response to a Bloomberg-held fundraiser this evening for the four GOP senators that betrayed the trust of New Yorkers last summer by exchanging a vote for same-sex marriage for campaign contributions. The advertisement, called "Money Dance," is modeled after the practice of some brides and grooms dancing for money with supporters at their wedding. In this case, the four Senators -- Roy...

Murder and violent crime rates were supposed to soar after the Supreme Court struck down gun control laws in Chicago and Washington, D.C.  Politicians predicted disaster. "More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence," Washington’s Mayor Adrian Fenty warned the day the court made its decision.  Chicago’s Mayor Daley predicted that we would "go back to the Old West, you have a gun and I have a gun and we'll settle it in the streets . . . ."  The New York Times even editorialized this month about the Supreme Court's "unwise" decision that...

Gay Marriage- A Milestone Though there was unnecessary secrecy in the negotiations, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a determined effort to achieve marriage equality in New York. He shares credit with the four Republican state senators who bucked their party and threats from conservatives to do what they knew was right. State Senators James Alesi, Roy McDonald, Mark Grisanti and Stephen Saland, all from upstate districts, deserve the support of their communities. They showed the kind of strength that is extremely hard to find in today’s politics. In drafting a compromise, however, Senator Saland and other Republicans insisted on language that...

Seven or more Senate Republicans have signaled Gov. Cuomo that they're ready to legalize same-sex marriage, more than enough to put the controversial and historic measure over the top this week, The Post has learned. A highly knowledgeable Senate insider said yesterday that "far more of the [GOP] members are in play than anyone realizes, including some surprising names from conservative upstate areas." [Snip] Influences contributing to the changes of heart are secret Republican polls showing majority support for gay marriage in key swing districts and the strong possibility that the GOP could lose control of the Senate next year...

After the City of Chicago lost McDonald et al v. City of Chicago et al in the Supreme Court, they changed their gun ban ordinances. Because of this, they argued that the plaintiffs were not "prevailing parties" and thus weren't entitled to attorneys' fees. U.S. District Court Judge Milton Shadur agreed with them and denied Alan Gura and the attorneys for the National Rifle Association the attorneys' fees that should have been due them. Today, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision overturning Judge Shadur and ordering "reasonable attorneys' fees under §1988." This decision applied both to the...

Two dozen strong, Vibbins Williams' loved ones packed into a Broward County courtroom Friday to tell a judge that despite their grief, they agreed that a 30-year prison sentence would suffice for the teen who fatally stabbed the great grandmother more than 100 times and took $34 from her purse. Justin McDonald, 17, was Williams' Lauderdale Lakes neighbor. When she refused to give him $5 to buy marijuana, McDonald stabbed her 105 times and grabbed what money the 62-year-old woman had in her purse, prosecutor Maria Schneider said.

BELLEVUE, Wash., March 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Otis McDonald, the cornerstone plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court Second Amendment Case McDonald v. City of Chicago, will appear Friday in Chicago, Illinois at a special event featuring the rolling "Guns Save Lives" billboard sponsored by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Mr. McDonald will appear at a press conference at 3 p.m. at the Jewels Store parking lot at 87th Street and Lafayette on the west side of the expressway. Joining him will be Valinda Rowe, spokesperson for IllinoisCarry.com; Mike Weisman, vice president of the Illinois...

An assistant manager at McDonald's was fired after allowing Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson to use the bathroom while the restaurant was closed. While working the late-night drive-thru shift at 3 a.m., a female employee encountered a man standing outside the window who asked to come inside and use the restroom. After a little while, she realized it was the popular Minnesota Vikings star and opened the door for him to come inside and use the facilities. (The seating area at the restaurant is normally closed during the late-night hours.)

BALTIMORE - Maryland's highest court has ruled the state's handgun laws are still constitutional despite a 2008 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gutted gun statutes in D.C. In an opinion issued Wednesday, the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed a gun possession charge levied in Prince George's County against Charles F. Williams, Jr. Williams said the state's gun regulations violated his right to "keep and carry arms" under the Second Amendment, and based his argument in part on the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. The high court in that case said barring a person from...

The biggest constitutional civil rights story of 2010, maybe of the decade, was based right here in Bellevue, yet as the on-line Seattle Post-Intelligencer is currently beginning its “Top Stories” reviews, should we expect to see a single word about the Second Amendment Foundation’s landmark gun rights victory before the U.S. Supreme Court? Don’t hold your breath. Local news agencies have less than 72 hours to prove this column wrong. Were this any other civil rights ruling by the High Court, the SAF victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago would have been big news. But this one involved gun...